A popular U.S.-based gaming brand owned by Microsoft is facing fury after mass employee layoffs occurred in the wake of the company being approved for thousands of foreign worker visas.
Microsoft announced that it will lay off 4,800 people total and 1,600 from the corporation’s XBOX division, which makes and sells the dominant video game console.
Meanwhile, Microsoft has been approved this year to hire from foreign countries 2,273 employer-sponsored, non-immigrant workers under what is known as the H-1B visa program, according to data from U.S. Citizen and Immigration Services (USCIS).
Furious online critics claim that American jobs are being unfairly handed to foreigners in an effort to cut labor costs but at the cost of leaving U.S. workers in the lurch.
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“A great way to fix this is to throw anyone doing this in prison,” said one user on X. “Fire Americans to replace with thousands of visa workers? Straight to jail, and assets seized. This story has been told countless times. Fire American staff and hire foreigners. Over and over.”
“It is the fault of our Government [sic] for approving the H-1Bs,” another social media user lamented. “Our Government [sic] has sold us out of jobs at home and those being moved to other countries.”
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Another user described the H-1B program as “industrial scale job theft from Americans.”
Microsoft is the sixth-largest beneficiary of H-1B visas, a program that is overwhelmingly dominated by workers from India. The company has even more H-1B applications pending. Microsoft has employees worldwide, but most are in the United States.
“These decisions are based on business need, not visa status. H-1B employees were also impacted by job eliminations in the U.S.,” a Microsoft spokesperson told Fox News Digital when reached for comment on the lay offs.
“Every single employer is exploiting the H-1B visa program,” said the Project for Immigration Reform.
A lawmaker even called for a complete end to the non-immigrant visa program.
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“This is INSANE. LEGAL immigration is a major problem. These companies, especially big tech, are abusing these immigration programs to replace American workers with foreign workers,” said Rep. Riley Moore, R-W.Va.
“No more. It’s long past time to end the H-1B scam.”
XBOX CEO Asha Sharma cited the company’s financial health for the layoffs.
“Our business today is not healthy,” said a memo from Sharma, according to The Associated Press. “We are operating at margins that are 3-10x lower than comparable platform and publishing businesses.”
Sharma added that her strategy is to “reset” XBOX.
Some online critics, however, claimed Sharma’s Indian heritage played a role in firing the Americans, given the percentage of H-1B workers from India. Sharma was born in Wisconsin.
Vice President JD Vance announced on Tuesday a large-scale investigation into H-1B visa fraud.
“Today, I’m proud to announce that the federal Department of Labor has started dozens of subpoenas and investigations into foreign fraudsters who are trying to take advantage of the H-1B visa program,” he said during a press conference in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
“American jobs ought to go to American workers and not foreign fraudsters and the Department of Labor is fighting back against it.”
Recently, President Donald Trump tried to limit employers’ use of the H-1B program by imposing a $100,000 fee for companies seeking H-1B applications.
A federal judge struck down that order, reasoning that it amounted to a tax that only Congress has the ability to impose.
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